


time's arrow

by moroodors



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Gen, Panic Attacks, Paranoid Ford, Time Travel, brief descriptions of blood, the time travelers pig
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 07:03:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19763020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moroodors/pseuds/moroodors
Summary: dipper and mabel get stuck in the past in "time traveler's pig" and are left with a paranoid ford who doesn't know who he can trust.





	time's arrow

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: some of the dialogue is lifted directly from "a tale of two stans," which i don't own. please don't sue me.
> 
> warning: this contains a major panic attack and has brief mentions of blood. don't be afraid to message me if more details are needed. please be careful.

“It’s getting hotter!”

With a yell, Mabel stops running and drops the time machine into the snow. The sudden stop causes Dipper to run straight into her, throwing them both tumbling on top of the quickly cooling machine. 

“Oh no!” Dipper cries as he picks it up. Pieces lay impossibly small in the snow, thrown by the large crack that made the largest pieces resemble an egg more than anything in Dipper’s hands. 

“Who’s out there?”

-

Stanford Pines had been standing in his bathroom, hands grasping each side of the sink until his knuckles turned white. His reflection felt heavy on his shoulders, eye bags seeming to grow impossibly worse each day accented with a bloody right eye that made him look like a stranger to himself. 

(He’s grateful to have literally thrown out his scale a few days or weeks ago. He’d been getting frustrated with the numbers that kept dwindling, muscle that he had worked hard to earn slipping through his fingers. It’s for the greater good, he kept telling himself.)

“I’m doing great,” Stan says from the other side of the mirror and Ford honestly can’t tell if he’s talking to himself, if Stan is actually here, or if he’s hallucinating. “Much better than you, who let a demon into our world. Getting rid of you was the best thing that happened to me.”

“You’re coming,” Ford says, maintaining eye contact with the empty sink, stained red, “I sent the- the-” Ford’s memory escaped him for a few moments. “-the card. The postcard. You’re coming. You have to.” 

A small drop of blood drips from Ford’s eye and Ford leaps back as if he’s been struck. He breathes out the quick shot of adrenaline heavily and sees the scared, hollowed out man in the mirror and doesn’t want to make the connection that that man is him. “I don’t know what I’d do if you don’t.” 

He hears someone yell from outside and it takes a second for him to distinguish it from the whispers that have become a constant in the back of his ears. 

He starts to walk to the front door while wondering why the world is blurry before he touches his face and realizes he’s not wearing his glasses. He goes back, grabs them, and finds his crossbow on the way. He grabs that too, heart rate increasing as he remembers Bill. Bill’s here. Bill’s everywhere. He thumbs the flashlight in his pocket as he strides to the front door, head feeling dizzy as he moves too fast.

He yanks open the front door and aims his crossbow, yelling to the snow, “Who’s out there?”

The voices that he heard suddenly go silent so he knows that they were real people. But why are there people all the way out to his house? People knew not to come here. Uneasiness settles between each of his bones. Ford feels like his brain is practically addicted to that feeling at this point, so used to it that it’s now dependant on it. Ford doesn’t remember a time where that feeling wasn’t there. 

He hears murmuring and he can’t quite understand it but can assume that there is at least two people outside. What people are doing outside his house, especially in the middle of winter, he has no idea. The only answer his mind can come up with is  _ Bill _ . 

“I know there’s people out here! Don’t try to hide!” Ford takes the steps down the stairs of his porch. His boots are quickly soaked through, not made for this weather; however, the cold wakes him up enough that he welcomes it. 

Ford rounds the corner and sees two children, who look like deer caught in headlights. They’re cradling something between them, the girl halfway between standing and crouching, the snow turned where she’s standing.  _ So she’s probably looking for something _ Ford’s brain provides. Bill wouldn’t use two kids to get to him, would he? 

“What are you doing here?” Ford yells at them and the kids look even more terrified. Taking a longer look at them, Ford can clearly see that they are not dressed for this kind of weather. But Ford doesn’t let that waver him, and he keeps the crossbow aimed at them. “What do you want?” 

The girl pops up and starts walking closer to him, but he realigns the crossbow and she stops. “Sorry! We didn’t mean to end up here but our machine broke, and now we can’t leave.” 

He’s already been used for his brain once before and it was his greatest mistake in life, so he won’t make it twice. “Yeah, what will your machine do? Destroy humanity? Leak more weirdness while you laugh in the background?” The whispers grow louder in Ford’s ears, talking of Bill and destruction and other atrocities. 

“What?” The boy has stepped next to the girl now but Ford still can’t tell what he is holding. “What are you talking about it?” They look similar, they might be siblings. However, when Ford looks at them closer under that light, he can keep making connections, they look the same age, they look like the same face, they might be---

“Stop!” Ford takes a step back and then another. His hands feel shaky (more than usual) and it feels harder to breath, like his sweater is suddenly too tight around his neck. His mind sprints ahead of him as it finds an explanation. “Bill, you knew-  _ you knew _ my brother is coming so you send twins - children! - after me! To manipulate me!” 

The twins seem to have an entire conversation with one shared look before the girl speaks again. “We have no idea what you are talking about. We are from the future.”

That’s a curveball that Ford wasn’t expecting. “What?” 

The boy talks now, “We know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.” He shows the pieces of machinery that he’s been cradling. “This is the time machine, but it was accidentally broken.” 

Ford lowers the crossbow for the first time and he can see the kids visibly relax. He still keeps a firm grip on it, though, to be safe. Quickly, before they could react, Ford takes the flashlight from his pocket and shines it in both of their eyes. They appear to be normal. 

Ford takes a step back from the stunned kids and now his mind is scrambling to accept what they said. “Sorry,” Ford breaths out, “Just a precaution. Why don’t you two come inside.”

They follow Ford back inside and while Ford puts away his crossbow, they find the kitchen table like they already know where to go. Which could be a possibility, Ford realizes with a jolt. 

Ford grabs a cup of coffee using a cup from the sink that he thinks he’s washed and takes a seat across from them, not even bothering to try and clean up the mess that inhabits the table. “What year are you two from?” 

“2012.” The boy says.

It takes an embarrassingly large amount of seconds for Ford to figure out how many years they traveled through. “30 years. Good to know that the world didn’t end in 1999.”  _ Or right now _ , Ford thinks, remembering the doomsday device in his basement. “What are your names?” 

“I’m Mabel!” The girl - Mabel - says cheerfully, “and this is Dipper!” Dipper gives a little wave as his sister introduces him. 

Dipper is obviously a nickname, but Ford doesn’t ask. “Can I get-”

Ford is interrupted by Mabel. “Wait, what’s your name?”

Ford sits up a little straighter. He doesn’t get to flex his title too much anymore. When was the last time he introduced himself to anyone? “I’m Doctor Stanford Pines. Now, Can I get-”

Once again, Ford is interrupted, this time by Dipper coughing loudly. “Dr.Pines?” He asks in a weak voice after his fit. 

“Yes…?” Ford says in a questioning tone. He isn’t sure why Dipper reacted this way. A thought crosses his mind, “Do you two know me, in the future?” 

The twins share another look and Ford’s heart hurts. “We think so.” Dipper decides after a moment. 

“You think so?” Ford questions, then decides he doesn’t really care for questioning children more than he has to. “Whatever. Can I get a look at this machine you two were talking about?”

Dipper lifts up his cupped hands and Ford mirrors him, allowing Dipper to pour the pieces into his hands. Just as this action is finished, Dipper gasps loudly. “Your hands?”

Ford rolls his eyes. Ten years ago, that comment could have really hurt him; but, when he’s lived in a town like Gravity Falls, not so much. He feels a certain proudness with being included in a group labeled “abnormal.” Honestly, he’s mostly surprised that that’s what they get caught up on, not the rest of his appearance. “Ah, yes. Polydactyly. I was born with six fingers on each hand.” 

“Mabel!” Dipper attempts to whisper to his sister, not doing it well. “Just like the journal!”

“What?” Ford says, setting the pieces down. His heart rate increases and he feels that familiar sense of being watched. “You know about my journals?” 

The whispers now are on a repeat, asking nonstop about his journals and the portal and the secrets of the town and his journals and please open the portal and

There’s a knock at the door and Ford jerks up, knocking his chair down in the process. Ford grabs his head, holding his ears to try and quiet the voices to just be able to think for a god damn moment. Who could be at his door? Faces pop in between his journals and his portal and he remembers “Stan!” 

He hears people parrot the voices but can’t tell if it’s the whispers or the kids or himself. He runs to the front door, taking a hard stumble and banging his knee against a corner as his feet seem to trip over themselves. He grabs his crossbow and whips the door open, aiming it at the tip of the nose of the person - demon?- at the door. “Who is it? Have you come to steal my eyes?”

A gruff voice that Ford hasn’t heard in 5 - no, 10 years. Has it really been 10 years? “Well, I can always count on you for a warm welcome.” He leans and looks past Ford, “What’s with the kids?”

_ They know about the journals. How do they know about the journals?  _ Ford sends that thought out his mind, for now. “Stanley, did anyone follow you? Anyone at all?” 

Ford can see Stan roll his eyes, “Hello to you too, pal.” He pushes past Ford to the younger twins, who are now standing a few feet behind Ford. He bends down and sticks a hand out, “I’m Stan, what are your names?”

Before they could answer, Ford grabs underneath Stan’s arm and lifts him up, shining his flashlight in his eyes. Ford can relax a little more as he can see they are normal. 

Stan pushes Ford away and rubs at his eyes. “Hey! What was that?”

Ford shakes his head and he thought Stan being here would fix everything and help but the voices seem just as loud. “Sorry, I just had to see-” The terror strikes him again and he makes a choice, “Nothing. Nevermind.”

The voices seem to be overflowing and spilling out. They just keep talking about the portal and it’s almost open and Ford is so disappointed with himself because he actually thought he could help these kids but they were just using him and Stan can’t help him and his journals and the portal and Where was his coffee? and he can’t sleep he can’t and

It feels like he’s crying. He lifts his hand and isn’t even surprised when it comes back red. Stricken with not wanting them to see, he turns away and strides into the kitchen, feeling like eyes are crawling all over him like ants. Damn, he’s so angry with himself. Dipper and Mabel. How could he let them in his own house? With the portal so close?

He sets his glasses on the counter and grabs a towel, pressing it to his face. He can distantly hear Stan ask, “Are you going to explain what’s going on here? You’re acting like mom after her tenth cup of coffee.” 

When was the last time he saw mom? Not important. But isn’t it? Where was his coffee? He just had it. He lowers the towel and grabs the nearest cup, seeing liquid and drinking it. It’s disgusting but has the distant lingering memory of coffee so Ford downs the rest of it. 

Ford turns around and sees the kids standing behind Stan. Stan looking worried about something. “I’ve made a mistake.” His throat feels tight. “I don’t know who I can trust.” And yet, he trusted the two kids, twin faces smiling at him, was the smile too wide?, was it normal?, Ford really is an idiot. 

“And the kids?” Stan prompts, holding up his hands like he’s soothing a scared animal. Ford can hear a distant laughing at the back of his mind and a  _ that scared animal is you  _ and it’s driving him insane. He’s just so  _ tired _ .

The voices now keep telling him to close his eyes and lie down and get some sleep but he shakes his head. “I don’t know.” It takes a second for him to remember. “They just showed up at my house. They said they’re from the future. I can’t trust them.” 

“They’re kids, Sixer.” And Ford can’t even comprehend the emotions in Stan’s - Bill’s - face because he’s reeling. He’s panicking. How did this happen? He checked the eyes, didn’t he?  _ Sixer Sixer Sixer _ It’s taunting him, chasing after him, turning water into poison. 

“Don’t call me that!” He yells or he says, he can’t tell. It’s in his throat choking him and Please. Please. He didn’t mean to. He didn’t know. He didn’t know about Bill. Please. Leave him alone. He just wants to sleep. Wants everything to go back. Tears- blood- something is falling from his eyes and is this actually happening? Will he wake up somewhere he didn’t remember falling asleep? Is he awake right? He can’t tell. 

“Ford, breathe.” Ford forgot Stan was here for a second. Breathe? He’s trying to tell his body that but it’s not working. He’s flying through the mind scape. He doesn’t exist. He can hear wheezing. Who was that? He can’t feel his hands. Did Bill finally decide to cut them off, like he was taunting? 

He grabs his head in hands and pulls at his hair. He realizes he’s sitting down on the ground. When did that happen? “Bill, please.” He can feel his eyes burning every inch of his body. “Get out of my head. Please.”

“Stanford, look at me.” But Bill never used his actually name. He looks up and sees Stan kneeling in front of him. Stanley. He remembers long days and short nights and skin burning under the hot sun as they work on a dream that could never happen. He must have been who was talking. He looks at Stan’s eyes and sees his mom hugging him at graduation. Was that the last time he saw her? “Whoever Bill is, he isn’t here.” 

“Yes he is!” Ford cries or yells or says - who even cares at this point? He’s a puppet. Dancing for the amusement of Bill. If the strings were cut, the puppet master taken away, would Ford even know what to do? Would he be able to support himself? He’s had the strings for so long that he can’t remember what to do when they’re not there. “He’s here!” Ford points to his head with buzzing fingertips and Ford just wants to cry. Bill Cipher is in his head and he can’t get him out. 

“You need to calm down, Stanford.” Bill doesn’t like calm. He likes chaos. “Explain to me and I can help.” 

“He tricked me.” It hurts to say it out loud. It makes it real. “I thought he was helping me. I wanted answers and he had them.” Tricked. Tricked. Tricked. It means it wasn’t his fault, not really. He couldn’t help it, could he? 

“You say he’s in your head, what does that mean?” Stan is talking slow like he’s talking to a child and it drives Ford insane. But it helps. Ford can actually hear and process what he’s saying.

“He’s a dream demon. I made a deal with him that let him into my mind.” Ford can’t bring himself to say that the deal lasts  _ until the end of time _ . “He tricked me into building a portal that if fulfilled, will bring the destruction to our universe.”

“You let him into your mind? What does that mean?” Stan’s voice isn’t judging but Ford can feel the gavel all the same. He knows he made a stupid, irredeamable mistake. 

Ford’s hands find his hair once more and he pulls, some irrational thought planning out that if he can pull hard enough, Bill would just pop out. “He’s there. He’s always there. Whispers. When I sleep, he can take control of my body.” 

“He can take control of bodies?” Ford nods. “Is that why you checked our eyes?”

Ford nods again. “That’s one of the signs of his possession: yellow eyes.” 

“Is that why you said you can’t trust the kids?”

Ford looks around for the younger twins and realizes for the first time that they left the room. “Yes. I checked their eyes but then they knew about my journal and I don’t know how that is possible.” 

“Why don’t we ask them?” Stan says it so simply but that seems terrifying. Ford shakes his head but Stan ignores it and calls out, “Kids!”

They wait for the kids to come from wherever they were and Stan asks a quiet question, “Is the eye from him too?”

Ford reaches up and touches it, fingers coming away red again. He sighs, “Repeated possession causes injures to my eye. I’m not sure why.”

The kids come into the room, looking scared. Their eyes keep drifting back and forth between Stan and Ford. Stan asks them, “How do you kids know about Ford’s journal?” 

Dipper gulps and it seems like he makes an effort to keep his eyes on Ford. Ford finds himself tensing as he waits for an answer, fingers itching to find his crossbow. “Well, I found it, in 2012.”

Stan whistles, “Wow, all the way in 2012. What did you say your names were?”

“Full names,” Ford adds, leaning forward. The explanation seems plausible enough. The hiding spots for both of the journals should have made them impossible to find, but maybe over the years, normal wear happened and made them found. 

Dipper and Mabel share a look before Dipper speaks again, nervous. “Dipper and Mabel Pines.” 

Ford does some quick math in his head as whispers of trees and stars fill his ears. “Who’re your grandparents?”

“Shermie.” Mabel answers and Ford can feel himself breath a sigh of relief. 

“Wait,” Ford says, as he gets the feeling of something and waits for his brain to catch up, “You found my journal but you didn't know it was written by me? How?” 

The younger twins exchange quick whispers and Ford can tell this explanation is complicated. Dipper is the one who answers. “We’re not really sure. We have been visiting Gravity Falls with our Grunkle Stan, but his name is Stanford.” 

Ford can surmise that “Grunkle” means great uncle. But Stan? Ford looks over to Stan and finds him already looking at Ford, so they share a look. Ford can tell that he’s just as confused. Ford tries to find another explanation, but, at this point, Ford’s brain feels like it’s trudging through sludge. 

“I would never go by Stan, no offense.” Ford can see Stan roll his eyes but he’s smiling, so he’s not really sure what that means. 

“He has five fingers,” Dipper adds, the statement popping out of him like he was eager to add to deciphering the mystery. “If that helps.” 

“I’m living here, with your name?” Stan’s now leaning against the cabinets, sitting next to Ford on the ground. “Where’s Ford then?”

They’re both looking shy and away from Stan and Ford. Ford can feel a certain dread fill his stomach. (When was the last time he ate?) Mabel kicks at a paper that’s on the ground, “We didn’t know Stan had a twin brother before today.”

That sends Ford spirling, running down paths of why he wouldn’t be there, thirty years in the future. Maybe he and Stan got into another big fight. But then why would Stan be living here? He feels sick as he thinks of Bill and the portal and the other million things that could harm him in Gravity Falls. 

“Oh.” Is all he can find to say.

Stan rests a hand on Ford’s shoulder and squeezes but Ford can only tense up. When was the last time someone touched him? He can only think of Bill and Bill and scars and pain. Stan must have seen some of that because his hand withers away, not long after. 

Ford jumps up to stand. He claps his hands together as a way to diffuse some of his nervous energy. “I probably have parts for the time machine in my lab.” Ford curses, “Fiddleford would be a godsend in a situation like this.”

But Ford had to mess that up to. There’s whispers of glasses and the weird prophecy that Fiddleford had spouted. Weirdly, this helps Ford remember that he’s not wearing his own glasses and he puts them back on.

“McGucket?” Mabel asks, eyes widening.

“What?” Ford is caught off guard and spins in her direction. “You two know Fiddleford?”

“More or less,” Dipper answers, “He lives in Gravity Falls, but he’s not really in the best shape.”

“The memory gun,” Ford means to think that but instead says it out loud. Why else would Fiddleford not be in California? Has he been using all this time? Would he be using in the future. Ford ignores the questioning glances of the groups and points to Stan. “Can you come me down to the lab to get parts? We can bring them back up and work on the machine ourselves.”

Stan nods and follows Ford downstairs. He whistles as they enter the elevator. “Is this what grant money can get you?”

Ford thinks his question is rhetorical but answers anyway before he can think to not to. “Yes, that and a dream demon possessing you.” They both get quiet after that.

The doors open and Ford takes a deep breath before walking out. The portal looms heavy and dark, an amalgamation of his mistakes and regrets. The voices are louder down here, urging him to the bed to sleep or to the buttons to press the few that are required to this sitting apocalypse on.

“Is this the portal?” Stan asks, looking up at it. They are standing right in front of it and Ford can practically feel the cold of the emptiness of space through the metal. “What does it do?”

“It’s a trans-universal gateway, a punched hole in a weak spot in our dimension. I created it to unlock the mysteries of the universe. But it could just as easily be harnessed for terrible destruction.” 

“But why me?” Stan takes a step closer to Ford and Ford has to fight with himself to stand still. “All of this stuff goes way over my head, why ask me for help?”

How long ago did Ford send for Stan? Weeks? Months? Ford reaches into his jacket and pulls out his journal. He hands it to Stan and the whispers are practically screams now, which further cements his decision. “I have something to ask of you.” Stan nods so Ford continues, “You remember our plans to sail around the world on a boat?” Stan smiles but all Ford can hear is  _ It was only his dream. Not yours. It was only his dream _ . 

“Take this book, get on a boat, and sail as far away as you can! To the edge of the Earth! Bury it where no one can find it!” Perhaps it’s a low swing, but Ford needs Stan to understand how serious this is.  _ What has he ever done for you?  _ rings in his head in a voice he can’t quite place and he can only remember the pain of 10 years ago and suffocating, drowning but hidden in a shadow that was thrown over his entire life. 

“That’s what you ask me? You finally see me after 10 years, and it’s to tell me to get as far away from you as possible?” 

-

Stan, as he sees his brother drowning in a blue as cruel as the ocean, can only think of the twins upstairs, unknowing that they had another great uncle and that he thinks he knows the reason for that. 

-

The time police arrive three weeks later, in between a session of changing Stan’s bandages and another tour through the house. 

The three remining Pineses had developed a familiar sort of routine that Stan couldn’t help loving. But, he knew this day was coming but was still sad about it, so he can’t help but compare this feeling to the feeling of an old pet dying. 

He calls the twins downstairs and they seem sad to go too, although they are returning to the same place. Before they go, they both stop to give a final hug to Stan.

“I believe in you, Stan!” Mabel says, a bright grin with a surprising wetness in her eyes. “You are going to get your brother back!” Stan can’t find it in himself to disagree with her.

“If anyone can accomplish this, it’s you Stan!” Dipper says with his own hug. “You’re smarter than you realize. You got this!” They share a final wave and are gone in a flash.

They feel like they left all too quickly and now Stan doesn’t know what to do. At least with them he had an objective: keep the children alive. He sees that objective morph the slightest bit before it becomes “keeps  _ Stanford  _ alive.” 

So, maybe the kids thirty years in the future didn’t know about Ford, but this was a different timeline now, right? Maybe this time was different. Those kids believed in him.

Feeling lighter, Stan began the rest of his life. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!


End file.
